The Continuation of Civilian Causalities

The ongoing war in Afghanistan continuously claims the lives of Afghan civilians besides the engaged parties in the strife. The more the war is escalated, the higher the level of civilians’ causalities heightens. Civilians’ death toll has been persistently hiked over the past years. Despite of the fact that the accurate figures of civilians killing is not recorded thanks to lack of access of media to insecure areas, the statistics released by United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other institutions are also thrilling.

Though the warring parties claim of paying keen attention to civilians’ lives, the realities on the ground are otherwise. All parties into the war, from foreign troops to Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and military opposition, do not take the Afghan civilians lives into consideration as needed. The pledges of these parties in this regard remained unaccomplished with no fulfillments in sight.

In its recent instance of such incidents, non-militants have allegedly suffered causality in Afghan Forces operations in restive southern Helmand province. According to media reports, nine members of a family, whose residence place is located near to militant Taliban’s base, were killed after Afghan Forces blew it up in Garishk district of Helmand province. Following this incident, when the residents took the bodies to the governor office as mark of protest, the police blocked their way. As much as the civilians’ killing is of grave concern, the same is police treatment for easing the people is worrisome.

The statements of local people denote that this incident was easily likely to be prevented from occurring. Military personals should have informed the inhabitant of that area in advance. Indeed, this incident manifests the inattention of military forces to the lives of non-combatants. It demonstrates that the military personals even do not take that much trouble for the civilians’ safety to inform them.

One of the major reasons for civilians’ causalities in Afghanistan besides other factors is not taking legal actions against the culprits of such occurrences. In several occasions, when the warring sides inflict causality on civilians, the perpetrators are not legally convicted. All parties consider themselves immune of interrogations, and therefore, they do not feel much responsibility.

One factor of the Afghan conflict is the Afghan government's failure to maintain a balance in its foreign policy. The imbalanced foreign policies of governments have paved the ground for Afghanistan to turn into a battlefield of proxy wars.